REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, VIENNA - A senior US official said on Wednesday a deal on Iran's nuclear program was still possible by late next month and there were no talks now about extending the deadline, after Tehran and Moscow indicated more time may be needed.

However, speaking ahead of a meeting between the top US, Iranian and European Union diplomats, the State Department official said there were still some significant gaps in negotiating positions on Iran's uranium enrichment program.

"We don’t know if we’ll be able to get to an agreement, we very well may not,” the official said, declining to be named.

Iran and six world powers -- the United States, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain -- aim to end a decade-old nuclear standoff by a self-imposed Nov. 24 deadline.

In a sign of attempts to accelerate their efforts, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton began talks in Vienna on Wednesday.

The negotiations are centered on curbing Iran's atomic activity, which Tehran says is peaceful but the West fears may be aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability, in exchange for lifting sanctions hurting its economy.

But with less than six weeks to go before the Nov. 24 target date, Western officials say there are still important differences between the sides, especially over the future scope of Iran's production of enriched uranium, which can have both civilian and military applications.

Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said in Geneva the US should stop focusing on the number of Iran's uranium enrichment centrifuges, which he described as a "trivial matter", and concentrate on pushing for a deal.

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